"It would have been better if we had known the information of the dungeon being opened. It would have shortened things a lot as we are still near the border," Akeru sighed in frustration.
"I guess the location where he was spotted was on the opposite side of where the dungeon was found; that probably helped. Headquarters probably didn't get the information of the dungeon opening until recently, maybe today only," Erza said while focusing on her sensory field, which proved to be useless.
"Anyway, let's head in," Akeru said while using '3D Witness' to observe the people inside.
'So the canon has already started. I thought I had a few more weeks until it got started,' Akeru groaned as he followed Erza's lead and entered the dungeon.
They entered a dark hallway.
Erza brought out an artifact from her pouch, which gave out blue light.
Normally, she wouldn't have needed it; however, her sensory field still wasn't able to detect anything properly.
"How long do we have to move?" Erza asked.
"Hmm, this should be fine," Akeru said while turning to his right and kicking the wall.
BOOOM
The wall broke, and a lot of light filled the area where they were standing.
They took a few steps forward and entered a weird area.
"Woah, I haven't been in a place having more mana density than this," Erza said with shock as she was finally able to sense mana inside.
"Yeah."
'The mana density here is way higher than in any of the Grand Magic Zones I have been to.'
They were in an area with multiple floating structures present, all creating a closed structure.
Akeru noticed that the gravity was weird in the room as water was flowing in an unnatural manner.
"Interesting. I wonder how long it took to get this result," Akeru said while inspecting the visible runes to him.
"I sense fighting there." Erza pointed in one direction and started moving.
However, suddenly, her eyes widened as she felt a magic circle on the ground activate and a wave of intense fire erupt from there.
She covered her body with mana skin and performed a dodging maneuver.
"That was intense," she said while taking a deep breath.
"Will you really be able to fight in this state?" Akeru asked in a worried tone.
They had started this mission last night, and due to the urgency of the situation, they hadn't slept until now.
"I would be fine, It's not my first time doing this, but just to be cautious, I will create some weapons and their ammunition in advance." Erza immediately got to work.
Akeru watched her do that for the next minute and spoke when he noticed a knife being created by her.
"That reminds me, the gun hidden in the knife's skin you gave me came in handy in yesterday's fight."
"Really? I am glad that it was useful."
"Yeah, it was super useful. I might have taken out Aetheris with that gun if he had made a mistake in our exchange," Akeru said with regret in his voice.
"Woah, that reminds me, is that guy really strong? I heard that it took all three of you to stop him."
"Yeah, he is pretty strong. Not only are his abilities unnatural, but they are also borderline insane. He is also smart, so he is a terrifying opponent."
Akeru suddenly turned his head sideways quickly in the same direction where Erza was going before.
Erza's eyes widened in the next instant as she felt a very large amount of mana in her sensing range.
"That attack... It was at least Vice-Captain level," Erza said while dashing in that direction.
Akeru followed after her.
'That should be the wind spirit. I guess that part hasn't changed in the canon, though I wonder how much this event is different from the canon.
Even though my presence had strengthened Mimosa drastically and, to some extent, Luck too, I don't think the latter is too drastic, and the former shouldn't be either, as she is a healer.'
"Erza, follow me." Akeru frowned as he noticed something.
He started moving at a speed slightly faster than Erza while breaking all the walls in his way.
"What the fuck! Is the dungeon collapsing?" Erza said after noticing the ceiling falling down.
"It's fine," Akeru said as in a few seconds they reached the area where they sensed the battle going on.
'1, 2...6, okay, everyone is alive. Hmm, Mars is in the process of being taken by Lotus. Should I intervene or not? He seems to have noticed my presence already and didn't even bother to take any of the treasures from here,' Akeru thought while looking in the direction where Lotus was escaping with his group.
"Who are you?" A man with blue-colored hair asked.
The group was currently on top of a wind construct, with Asta being the only one who was injured, but he seemed to have already recovered thanks to Mimosa's recovery magic.
They were preparing to escape as the dungeon was collapsing.
Akeru ignored him.
"Wait, is that you, Akeru?" Mimosa asked, shocked.
"We will talk later. Erza, guide them out safely; I have some stuff to do," Akeru ordered while heading towards the treasure room.
'Between Mars' life and the treasure here—the answer is obvious!'
"Is he insane? He will die if he stays here any longer," Klaus said, baffled.
"He will be fine. We should worry about leaving first." Klaus was startled as he found a scarlet-haired lady standing just beside him.
'I didn't even sense her move.'
"Let's go." Erza looked at Yuno; the latter nodded as the group started leaving.
Akeru was now standing in the treasury room, taking the contents of the room and putting them inside a pouch he was carrying.
'Let's increase its capacity,' he thought as he immediately started working.
Above him, chunks of big rocks could be seen falling, but if one looked closely, they would realize that they were moving at a very slow speed—almost suspended.
It was the effect of Akeru's mana zone, 'Viscous Hush'.
Soon, he was done modifying it.
'I really have to up my game with runes. I was lucky this time as this was already an artifact before, and it was created in such a way to support an increase in size smoothly. If I didn't have this, it would have been troublesome.'
Akeru thought while going through the materials that were going to his spatial pouch.
'I don't know whether I would be asked to hand the materials directly to the kingdom or not. I still think that it's highly likely that I would be allowed to choose what I want for some items, but let's just assume the worst-case scenario.
I would take all the stuff which would be useful to me.'
The group reached the surface quite quickly due to Erza's assistance.
"We survived," Noelle heaved a sigh of relief.
"I didn't expect newbies to be given such a mission," Erza said while looking at the 4 newbies present.
'For newbies, these guys are strong.'
"We were given a mission to conquer the dungeon. May I know what your mission was?" Klaus asked her while maintaining the etiquette of a noble from Golden Dawn.
"Hehe, do you even have clearance to know about my mission?" Erza said in a teasing voice.
She really enjoyed the following expression on Klaus's face.
"Hehe, I am kidding. We had a mission of capturing the guy you fought. We had been trying to find him since last night. So, it was quite a surprise when the trails led to a freaking dungeon of all things," Erza said with rage barely hidden in her tone.
She had been too tired, without sleep despite being carried by the big water palm Akeru created throughout the journey.
"That must have been rough."
"Yeah, though my boss is even more tired than me. It seems he will erupt anytime due to that."
A weird expression appeared on Mimosa's face as she heard Erza's statement, which quickly disappeared before anybody noticed it.
"Wait, will that guy be fine down there? Also, what happened to that mineral guy?" The only boy with ash-blonde hair said.
***
Join my Patreon to support me and get up to 20 advanced chapters:
- DESIRE96
(search it up)
Check out my other works.
Join my Discord to talk to our community. The link is in the synopsis.